UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the next stage of a proposed, decade-long initiative that will transform the Penn State College of Engineering and its facilities, the Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning today (Sept. 17) recommended for approval final design plans and authorized expenditures of $88 million for a new research and teaching building near the western edge of the University Park campus.
The proposal goes to the full board for consideration on Sept. 18.
Payette, an architecture firm from Boston, was appointed in late 2019 to design two new engineering buildings. After a highly competitive selection process, Payette was chosen based on its work with similar projects, including the Science Center at Amherst College, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex at Northeastern University and the Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
The building now approved for construction, currently known as West 2, will provide approximately 105,000 gross square feet to be used as flexible classrooms, multi-use design studios, “cornerstone to capstone” maker spaces, a high-bay research lab, faculty offices and research cores to benefit all College of Engineering disciplines. It will be built adjacent to the West Campus Parking Deck, which is currently under construction to the west of Leonhard Building and the Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on West campus. Construction on West 2 is expected to begin in October.